In our second installment of “Revisited,” we’ll be taking a look at another cult favorite here at Mutant Reviewers — the indie darling Clerks from 1994. Kevin Smith’s low-budget look at New Jersey clerking shook up the industry, but how does it hold up today?

Josh: Man, I love Clerks. This movie got me into movies and wanting to make movies. I am sure it influenced a lot of other people in the same way. It hit me at just the right time as well, around 13 or 14… probably too young! Of course, that lead to watching the other movies, reading the comics, going to the forums back in the day, listening to the podcasts, etc.

Clerks surely shaped my sense of humor even if I didn’t understand half the jokes and even less of the superimposed words that separate scenes. As an older man, I can say I now understand the jokes, but still I can’t say I understand all the words.

Al: Clerks is how I got into cult films. I watched it when I was 17 on a double bill with Iron Monkey in my coworker Jeff’s basement in 1997. I was completely sideswiped — I’d never seen another movie like it. It was relentlessly raunchy and funny. The acting was largely garbage, and yet I was in love with the characters.

The whole thing managed to feel both carefully constructed and completely slapdash. When Kevin Smith talks about being inspired to make movies, he remembers seeing Richard Linklater’s Slacker and thinking, “Wait, this COUNTS? This is all you need to do to make a movie?” That’s exactly how I felt watching Clerks, and I was ravenous to find other movies that defied my understanding of what a movie was allowed to be.

Actually, it wasn’t very much later that I first found Mutant Reviewers and started to seek out every movie they posted about. There’s an undeniable straight line between this movie and me contributing to this article.

Justin: I remember being pretty shocked by it when I saw it in college — there wasn’t much like it in terms of its tone. The whole “New Jersey” and very indie angle set it apart from what Hollywood was doing at the time. I hated the crudity but loved the characters and humor and relatability. So I was, and continue to be, pretty conflicted on this one.

Josh: I get that. You may not have heard it on the Mutant Matinee podcast, but I am a heathen with a fondness for cursing. But I also dig more wholesome things too. I don’t believe you have to be crude to be funny. I’m happy listening to George Carlin or Jerry Seinfeld.

Justin: It’s pretty crazy to me that this tiny indie movie spawned a whole cinematic universe, two sequels, a short-lived animated series, a comic book or two, and a failed sitcom pilot. Like it or hate it, Clerks made a significant pop culture impact. (And for the record, I probably love the cartoon the most of any Clerks project.)

Josh: Who is driving? Bear is driving!

Justin: HOW CAN THAT BE?

Josh: Diving into the Kevin Smith universe not only allows you to track characters and Easter eggs through the films, television cameos, and comics, but you can even get deeper and follow the trajectory of the actors themselves. Jason Mewes, for instance, is a huge inspiration as he could not have been lower in his life as he was at the peak of his addiction. But, he came back from it and has a home, a family and a career of his own. I find myself rooting for all these people as if they are my own friends.

The movie is grainy, simplistic, and dialog-heavy, which causes the actors to occasionally hesitate or trip over their words. And, those takes are left in because film ain’t cheap. I had never seen anything like this. It inspired me to write and to make some of my own short films with my friends, and those projects are time capsules that I cherish. I honestly don’t think any other films outside of Star Wars that have had more of an effect on the person I am today. My brother and I still quote the movie on a regular basis. Not to mention repeating “37!?” anytime the number is ever uttered.

Al: Thirty years later, I honestly have no idea how Clerks holds up. I recognize its flaws and limitations, but it’s so tied up in my adolescence and my growth as a movie fan that I can’t see it clearly. If I wasn’t splashed in the dirty, sloppy, ’90s crud of Clerks, I wouldn’t be the Toxic Avenger of movies that I am now.

Justin: It was definitely at the forefront of that wave of new kinds of indie movies that felt so different and raw — like one of us geeks were making it rather than a slick Hollywood team. I mean, who’s out there making films about convenience stores in New Jersey?

Josh: When I started working in retail, at a video store no less, I began to realize that there are so many Dantes in the world, and I was one of them. How I longed to be like Randall and shed the mask of customer service, to live my life honestly no matter what the setting, consequences be damned! To this day I can’t stand being a slave to a paycheck and wish I had had the bravery to commit to something.

Clerks piqued my curiosity and sent me on a trajectory of movie discovery. I even sought out the video store job because of the Clerks influence. It helped facilitate that journey in the days before streaming and IMDB. I would binge on wild cult movies and low-budget productions, anything I could find really. And through the years I keep coming back to Kevin Smith movies. Who knew I would see another two Clerks movies in my lifetime?

Natalie: The movie that truly handed the microphone to Generation X was Kevin Smith’s Clerks. This 1994 black-and-white indie masterpiece is widely seen as the first real Gen X-directed film — a raw, dialogue-driven slacker comedy that captured the frustration, sarcasm, and pop-culture obsession of twenty-somethings stuck in dead-end jobs.

Smith, born in 1970, was a convenience store clerk himself, and he wrote a script packed wall-to-wall with razor-sharp banter, Star Wars debates, porn arguments, and endless references to movies, comics, and hockey on the roof.

That kind of hyper-verbal, reference-heavy style was groundbreaking at the time — it felt like real friends talking, not Hollywood screenwriting.

Brian O’Halloran stars as Dante Hicks, the eternal complainer who’s ‘not even supposed to be here today,’ while Jeff Anderson’s Randal Graves drops some of the most quotable lines in ‘90s cinema.

What makes the story even better is how it got made: Smith funded the entire $27,575 budget by maxing out a bunch of credit cards, selling off his massive comic book collection, borrowing from his parents, and using his own paychecks plus some insurance money from a storm. He shot it after hours at the real Quick Stop and RST Video where he worked — filming from 11 PM to 6 AM for 21 straight nights in black-and-white to save money, then opening the store for his actual shift the next day.

Against all odds, this ultra-low-budget 90s gem exploded at Sundance, got picked up by Miramax, and gave an entire generation a sarcastic, unmotivated, and hilariously authentic voice… and its success launched Smith’s View Askiewniverse. One of my favorite movie universes ever!

Josh: Not trying to brag because my collection is by far not the biggest but here is my little Kevin Smith corner:

Al: Wow, you’ve got Vulgar AND Drawing Flies up there. That’s devotion!